


Reality Check

by Fenvenir



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Gen, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28784487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenvenir/pseuds/Fenvenir
Summary: Sunny realizes the truth too late. Perhaps he should've gone back to sleep.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 127





	Reality Check

**Author's Note:**

> This is an exploration of some twists on the game's various endings, blended into one depressing cocktail. Let me know if there are any typos.

The final photograph flashed into Sunny’s memory. Mari’s hanging corpse, swaying gently from the tree. A cool breeze numbed his senses, to the point where he couldn’t feel the warmth of the decaying light that penetrated through the leaves. Long, flowing black hair concealed her face. However, somewhere deep within that lifeless void came a single, hellish eye that pierced the veil and peered back at him.

Sunny woke up in a cold sweat. The comfortable insides of his blanket were no protection from what came crawling out from within. A forbidden truth that he had tried to bury with four years of dreaming now returned to him. He had killed Mari with his own two hands. He had forsaken Basil, who had tried to protect a monster like Sunny.

Maybe there was still time. He could still save Basil. Then maybe everyone would forgive him.

_Liar._

He got up from the floor and looked at each of his sleeping friends one last time, thinking up a silent farewell for each of them.

Of all things, Kel slept in an orange sports jersey. His mouth was wide open, and he snored like a chainsaw. He was always the most optimistic of them all, and it was probably thanks to him that Sunny had ever bothered to go outside these past few days. Though sometimes blind to what was going on around him, he still sought out the best for his friends.

Next was Hero, in a dark blue shirt. He still snored, but far less than Kel. Rational and mature, he had consistently put the needs of his friends above his own. If only he knew that Sunny had killed his beloved Mari, then maybe he would not have saved Sunny from drowning the day before.

Finally, there was Aubrey, sleeping silently in her white and yellow letterman jacket. It was hard to see at times, but she cared immensely for her friends. She had always stayed true to her principles and stood up for what she believed was right. A twinge of regret caused Sunny’s eyes to linger on Aubrey for a bit longer. He wished he could have said he was sorry for stabbing her, and for her frankly horrendous home life, but that would have to wait.

They all seemed to be sleeping soundly, for which he was glad.

He quietly shuffled off over to Basil’s room and found the door unlocked. Was Basil expecting Sunny to come?

With a slow creak the door swung open. The window inside the room revealed a clear night sky. Pale moonlight streaming in directed his eyes below the window.

Sunny’s eyes widened, but they took in no more light. Not even broad daylight could blot out the shadow before him. It gripped at his feet and froze him in place, though he had no thought to run. An unfamiliar metallic stench cut into his insides, but he ignored it even as nausea seeped in. At any minute, the ringing in his ears would saw through his head, but he paid no more attention to it than the dull buzz of the crickets.

Instead he stared at something.

Mari’s eye stared back. Exactly as it did right before he left the dream. Only this time there was another pair of eyes looking at him.

He didn’t dare break his gaze. He knew Basil was staring at him through closed eyelids. Something surrounded Basil, shrouded his chest in inky darkness. Covered the floor around it. He had to save Basil.

_Liar._

His body immediately rejected the insinuation. Started to move as a marionette pulled by the shadows.

_Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. No forgiveness._

In response, his hands began to fumble with the contents of a first aid kit and several boxes of bandages. He started dressing the wounds, numerous as they were. Each individual gash looked rather small, maybe even smaller than the one he gave to Aubrey. This was doable. They could all be patched up. It would be alright. Nothing to worry about.

_Psycho. Murderer. No forgiveness._

Finished. It looked like practicing on Kel the past couple days really helped. Basil still wasn’t responding. He was still staring. Not good. No matter how many bandages Sunny put, none of them could cover up the darkness hanging over Basil. Worse still, he swore that something had begun to stare at him from underneath the bandages. There were eyes there too, oozing from each and every last gash he had patched up. His hands desperately reached for more supplies but found nothing.

_You can’t save Basil._

The panic that had been directing Sunny’s mind up to this point started to lose its driving purpose. It was no longer able to insulate him from the incessant whispers of his own thoughts. Sunny glanced at his hands. Completely covered in a vivid red.

_You killed Basil. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar. Liar._

He clutched his head and cried out.

* * *

_Welcome to White Space._

Sunny opened his eyes to an immaculate white expanse. Standing over him was the black and white figure of Omori, wearing a blank expression and wielding a knife. He reached out his hand to him, as if offering to help him up. Sunny took his hand, feeling its cold flesh and iron grip. His legs felt heavy, but he gradually got back on his feet with Omori’s support. Heavy fatigue wore away at his mind. He wanted to fall into Omori, to embrace him and stop worrying. Just as he was about to do so, he noticed the colorful flower crown sitting on top of Omori’s head.

Sudden nausea bubbled up inside, followed by disgust. His face contorted into an expression of barely contained scorn, and his exhaustion dissipated. Omori remained impassive, which angered Sunny most of all.

Sunny used his remaining hand to deliver an uppercut straight into Omori’s gut. He recoiled in pain, letting go of Sunny and dropping the knife. Sunny took this chance to grab the knife off the floor. Omori soon recovered, but he merely stared at him. He did not resist as Sunny drove the knife straight through his heart. He continued to drive it in and out of his insides.

The only thing that spilled out of Omori was a black liquid that splattered all over Sunny, but he did not care. Even after Omori collapsed onto the ground, he continued to stab. The flower crown rested on the floor nearby, stained with black.

After what seemed like an eternity, the tempo of metal cleaving into flesh finally slowed to a stop.

Sunny retrieved the flower crown and left Omori where he was. He proceeded to a solitary white door and turned its knob like he had done so many times before.

A young group of two boys and one girl, sitting out on the other side and all dressed in sleepwear, watched the door open. They saw a familiar figure walking into their cartoonish space.

“Omori!” cried Aubrey. But something was wrong. Though this figure had the same face and wiry frame, he was taller than before. And he had some color to him, albeit splotched with black in places. She was confused, but he did look much more grown-up.

“Omori is that really you? You’ve changed!” said Kel, a smile on his face.

Sunny did not move from where he stood. His face radiated disdain.

“Omori what’s wrong?” asked Aubrey. They all stood up to take a closer look.

Hero noticed the black liquid trailing behind the figure and leading into the doorway he came from. The same black liquid dripping from the knife in his hand. He held up his arm, gesturing for Aubrey and Kel to stay back. “Careful! I don’t think this guy is anyone we know. He may have gone into Omori’s room and hurt him.”

“What?!” cried Aubrey. She charged forward, enraged. Before any of them could react, she had closed the distance and headbutted Sunny with all her might. She reeled from the blow, but Sunny didn’t even flinch. In retaliation, he plunged the knife through her chest, causing her to keel over. Red blood spilled out from where she lay.

“Aubrey!” yelled Kel. He turned to Sunny, ball in hand. “You won’t get away with that!”

Hero readied his frying pan. “What’ve you done?!” he shouted.

Sunny did not respond. He gripped his hair with both hands. His hatred gave way to a pained expression. Something appeared behind him. The one-eyed specter that Sunny knew to be Mari.

Kel and Hero had never seen anything like it, and its very appearance sent chills down their spines. Despite the fear, they defiantly rushed to attack Sunny. With a running start, Kel threw his ball at top speed, scoring a direct hit on Sunny’s face. The impact caused him to fall on his back with a thud, while the specter behind him vanished.

The ball bounced back to Kel, who then passed it over to Hero. He used his frying pan as a tennis racquet and slammed the ball into Sunny, who no longer moved.

“Yeah! We got him good Hero!” cheered Kel.

“Let’s go check on Aubrey. I got a cookie and some jam right here for her,” said Hero. They walked over and turned over her body to reveal a knife wound in the center of her chest. Inspecting it further, they crouched down.

“Uh, shouldn’t she be toast by now?”

“Let’s try this.” Hero tried stuffing the cookie into her mouth, but her mouth would not open. As a last-ditch effort, he tried to spread some jam over the wound, but all it did there was mix in with the blood.

A shadow began to loom over Aubrey, causing Kel and Hero to look up. Sunny was back up, holding a knife overhead. It was positioned over Hero’s back, and with a quick swing Hero slumped to the ground.

Kel jumped back, but beyond that his limbs failed to carry him further. He watched as Sunny’s icy glare approached. “Stay back,” he stammered.

Sunny slit his throat in a single motion.

There was only one final thing to do. Sunny walked up the stairs out of the room and emerged from a tree stump into a forested area. He went south towards the old playground area and looked for a red and white plaid picnic blanket.

He found it. He was expecting to see Mari one last time, but she was missing. There was no picnic basket, nor any candy spread across the blanket. Internally, he breathed a sigh of relief. He gazed at the deserted playground for a while. Empty slides, swings, and a lone tetherball pole. The floating mirror that he would sometimes visit with his friends was gone. An immense sadness welled up in his chest, but he had no tears to cry with. Eventually, the feeling passed, so he gave up on reminiscing. When he got back to the tree stump, he glanced at the playground one last time before crawling back in.

Stepping over the corpses of his friends, he returned to the door leading to White Space. He unceremoniously opened the door and went in. Omori was no longer there.

At long last, Sunny pointed the knife to his stomach.

* * *

Sunny’s scream rang out through the house.

Several sets of footsteps echoed across the hallway, then stopped at the doorway to Basil’s room. Polly was the first to arrive, followed by Aubrey, Kel, and Hero. The door was already open, and each stared on in shock as they witnessed the scene inside the room.

Basil lay unmoving underneath the window. His left hand had let go of a small pair of gardening shears, and he was surrounded by blood. A mixture of blood and various-sized bandages applied on top of his clothes covered his chest, obscuring the wounds.

Next to him was Sunny, sobbing uncontrollably and gripping his own tangled hair. Blood had been smeared across his hands, hair, and knees. In between sobs he muttered something too quiet to understand.

Polly was the first to break the silence. “Basil!” she cried as she ran over to him.

After brief pause, Hero collected himself. Words started to leave his own mouth automatically. “Kel and Aubrey, please go to Sunny. I’ll work with Polly and see what we can do for Basil.”

As the nurse and doctor-in-training assessed Basil’s condition, Kel and Aubrey found themselves trying to console a trembling Sunny. They did their best to believe that Basil would be okay.

“Sunny, are you alright? What happened?” asked Aubrey.

“I… I killed Basil…” Sunny’s words came as a whisper, but they caught the two completely off guard.

Kel and Aubrey looked at each other in concern.

“Listen Sunny, we’re here for you now. We’re doing everything we can for Basil, so just hang in there, okay?” assured Kel.

“No… I… don’t deserve it…”

“We’re your friends Sunny. Don’t say things like that. We care about you,” said Aubrey.

“You don’t understand.” The pace of Sunny’s sobbing was beginning to slow down.

“This isn’t your fault Sunny,” said Kel.

Aubrey’s eyes darkened. “If anything, it’s mine.”

“Lies… it’s all lies…”

The two simultaneously decided it was best to pull in Sunny for a hug. Their arms briefly clashed before joining in a group hug. Sunny continued to cry.

“I-I killed them all... Basil and Mari both… they loved me, and I killed them…”

They held onto Sunny tightly and did not let go, to stave off the fear gnawing at the back of their minds.

“I’m… so sorry…”

“Damnit, not again…” mumbled Hero.

“How could I have not seen this coming…” said Polly.

* * *

They moved to the hallway and left the door to Basil’s room shut. They waited for emergency services to arrive, though they knew it was in vain.

Everyone had retreated within themselves, mumbling regrets and guilt. Heads hung low or staring into space. Hands against walls or on the ground. Save for Sunny, who had wrapped his hands around his knees and buried his head in them. His sobs had given way to a deathly quiet.

Sunny listened to the sirens come and go. He and his friends were being escorted out of the house. Somewhere along the line Polly told them that they should go home and rest.

He suspected that his friends were walking him home. That they would try to stay with him through the night, to cling onto him and save him from himself. Blame themselves instead of him when they could not. Just like Basil. He wouldn’t allow it.

He broke away from all the hands resting on his shoulders. From all the eyes looking at him. Voices called out after him, but they were distant and fading. No one should have to save him ever again.

His feet carried him mechanically fast over asphalt, concrete, and grass. He navigated obstacles from childhood memories of the town’s park and came to a hidden path amongst the trees, concealed by a familiar patch of brambles. The voices started getting louder again, especially Kel’s voice. To gain some time, he forced his way through some of the thorns, which bit into his skin. Basil bled far more than this.

Afterwards, he had to deftly weave his way through a series of road closure signs until the trees parted ways into a clearing. He pressed onwards without stopping. Glimpses of Basil’s silhouette entered his vision but disappeared as he blinked.

At last, Sunny reached the wooden planks making up the docks at their secret hangout spot. Just as well, since the adrenaline rush couldn’t sustain his sleep-deprived body much further. He bent over to catch his breath at the edge of the docks. The deep water of the lake reflected his face clearly under the moonlight. It revealed a haggard countenance with empty, yet resolute eyes. And below it, a yawning black void.

In the past, he had gotten lost in those depths and nearly succumbed. His mind felt awash with a calm serenity looking at those depths now. A glimmer of something in the water caught his eye.

“Sunny! Wait up will ya?” shouted Kel. He was close behind, which made sense given that he was a much faster runner than Sunny. Likely the only reason he hadn’t caught up sooner was the initial surprise of Sunny bolting off.

“Sunny come back!” yelled Aubrey in the distance.

“Please Sunny!” shouted Hero.

Sunny heard Kel’s steps across the wood. “Hey Sunny, this day’s been tough enough as it is, I think we should just take it easy, okay? Just so nothing else happens.” Kel placed his hand on Sunny’s shoulder.

Sunny remained silent. As the others arrived and got closer, they saw him precariously balanced on the end of the docks. Kel was standing by his side, but it was a dangerous place to be.

Aubrey’s voice piped up in a solemn tone. “Sunny, is this about what happened to Basil? It’s my fault, okay? Not yours.” The others looked at her, but her gaze remained fixed on Sunny.

“Sunny, please. We can’t lose you too.” Hero’s normally composed voice seemed unsteady.

“No.” Sunny took a deep breath and exhaled. “I killed Basil today. I killed him because I was afraid of the truth.”

“You mean not seeing the signs? We all missed them, Sunny,” said Kel.

Hero could see where this was going uncomfortably fast. He had trodden this ground far too many times, so he was relieved that he could reach out to Sunny on a personal level and help him. He gathered himself and spoke. “Sunny, take it from me. I wasn’t able to be there for Mari bu—”

“No!” barked Sunny, with a ferocity his voice had not conveyed in four years. “You were never at fault, Hero. I killed Mari too.”

“What?” Hero stopped to process the words he had just heard.

“Sunny, are you feeling okay? Maybe this isn’t the best place to talk,” said Aubrey. She tried to get Kel to move away from the edge and take Sunny with him, but he wouldn’t budge.

Sunny exploded. “She died because I pushed her down the stairs!”

The words passed through them. In any normal conversation they would’ve asked him to repeat himself, but instead their brains simply replayed the individual sounds, unable or rather unwilling to piece them together.

Kel was in disbelief. “How—”

“With these two hands!” Sunny held them out in front of him. “I’ll never forgive myself, not for as long as I continue to live. And even after that.”

Hero’s voice seethed with rage. “You…” He took a few steps forward before Aubrey jumped in his path and grabbed his shoulders. His head slowly turned to look down at her. “Let go.”

“Look, I’m pissed too. But we should hear him out. Maybe… it was an accident.”

“You would know.”

Aubrey grit her teeth and summoned every last ounce of self-restraint she had in order to refrain from headbutting him. She took her hands off of Hero to ease the temptation, opting to skewer him with a silent glare instead.

“Sunny… why?” asked Kel.

“The day Mari died, we were arguing about the recital. I smashed the violin that you all gifted me and was about to run away to my room. But Mari, she… got in my way and yelled at me. So I… I… I-I pushed her away. She fell down the stairs… and never got up.” He brought his hands up and covered his face as tears began to fall.

Hero turned his attention back to Sunny. “So, why was Mari found hanging from a tree? Afraid of others finding out?” he said coldly.

“Yes. Her heart wasn’t beating, and I didn’t know what to do. Basil… he saw what had happened. He tried to save me, but he shouldn’t have,” said Sunny.

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t want you all to hate me, so he suggested making it look like a suicide. And I went along with it.”

“Don’t try shifting the blame onto Basil.”

“That secret we shared… it must’ve eaten him up from the inside. He needed me there for him. I abandoned him. I abandoned you all.”

“It wasn’t just you,” consoled Kel.

“And the photos that Aubrey nearly killed Basil for… I blacked out the photos. Basil never told anyone. He took it to his grave. Instead of telling the truth, I stabbed Aubrey!”

Aubrey’s eyes widened. She closed her eyes as her head sunk.

“Sunny, we were trying to protect Basil at the time,” pleaded Kel.

“It was for nothing,” came Sunny’s reply.

Hero took this as an invitation to walk up to Sunny and Kel. Sunny heard his booming steps as those of an executioner walking onto the gallows. They stopped. Kel’s hand was no longer on his shoulder.

“Hero,” was all Kel said.

“How can you forgive him? For four years we fell apart. Mari is dead. Basil is dead. He admits it, that it was his fault! He only decides to tell us now, when the guilt and lies became too much for him to bear!”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what?! It’s like he just expects us to forget all about it and tell him that everything will be okay!”

Kel seemed to be racking his brain.

“All this time he’s been pushing off his suffering onto others just to protect himself. He’s still doing it right now!”

“… Mari would’ve forgiven him.”

Hero paused for a moment. The fury had not left his eyes. “Mari isn’t here.”

“Basil would’ve forgiven him too,” Kel added.

“It doesn’t matter. They’re dead.”

“That why you never bothered to visit Mari’s grave?” scoffed Aubrey.

Hero’s head whipped around. Slowly, Hero turned his back on the two in front of him. His clenched fists shook.

“Aubrey, you went too far!” chided Kel.

“Did I?”

Sunny continued to look out into the lake. “I don’t expect any of you to forgive me. Just leave me here. Tomorrow, you’ll never have to see my face again.”

Kel looked back at Sunny. “That’s crazy. We’re not gonna leave you here.”

Hero walked past Aubrey, then halted. “Fine. Do whatever you want. Sunny, it’s a good thing you’re going away.” He stormed off from the docks and disappeared into the darkness of the woods. Except for Sunny, the rest watched him in silence.

Eventually, Aubrey turned around and faced Sunny. “You know, Mari loved you. We all loved you. So why didn’t you tell us?” Tears started to well up in her eyes. “Why didn’t you trust us?” she cried.

Sunny remained entranced by his own reflection. He heard the words but did not respond. The silence gave its answer. Nobody spoke.

“He was afraid,” said Kel, trying to fill in the silence.

“You don’t want us to forgive you, do you? Because I can’t. Not now.” After allowing herself a few sniffles, she wiped away her tears and began to walk away. Before she stepped off the docks, she said one last thing. “Mari… Basil… please forgive us all.”

Some time passed. By that point, even Kel could tell that Sunny was waiting for him to leave. He was quite conflicted, and it was getting hard to believe that just earlier that day everything seemed like it would work out. Maybe he was the fool for thinking that there could’ve been a happy ending. Why did things like this have to keep happening to them? Above all else, he was tired of it all.

Still, Sunny was before him now. The same Sunny who chose to open the door on a day when Kel had all but given up hope. Kel placed a hand on Sunny’s shoulder yet again. He tried to give his trademark toothy smile, but it probably wouldn’t fool anyone other than himself. “Well, the others may not seem like it, but they’ll come around eventually. I forgive you, Sunny.”

“It’s best if you leave. This is the way things should be.”

“Nonsense! I’m not leaving here without you, Sunny.” Kel’s mouth opened with a large yawn. “I think it’s about time we went back home. Whaddya say?”

Sunny acquiesced. He figured Kel would keep pestering him until he relented anyway.

They started the walk home. Much to Kel’s surprise, Sunny initiated a conversation. It sounded like he had been replaced by an evil robot, but it was a start.

“Kel, you should be more like Aubrey and Hero. If you hated me as well, you wouldn’t have to bother with me anymore.”

“They’re just angry, Sunny. I’m angry with you too. But I still believe in that promise we all made to each other earlier today. That we would always be there for each other.”

“You must be really stupid if you think just pretending things will be okay can fix this.”

Ouch. Kel tried to ignore the insult. He wasn’t really used to someone other than Aubrey saying it. “I don’t.”

“Then why?”

“It’s how… I keep going, I guess.”

Sunny thought for a moment. “I see.”

Kel couldn’t really tell if that meant approval or disapproval.

Neither of them bothered to revive the conversation after that. In time, they reached Sunny’s house. Kel figured it would be best to speak up now, before Sunny shut the door in his face or something. “Listen, Sunny. If you’re thinking about… killing yourself, know that I’ll be here for you. You don’t have to be alone anymore. Even if you’re far away, feel free to just give me a call.”

“Don’t worry. I know I don’t deserve to die.”

“Alright… well, good night then. I’ll try to get the group back together again, I promise. See ya in the morning.”

Sunny nodded, then gently closed the door. His friends faded from his mind once more.

Empty as ever, the inside of his house greeted him with unwelcome memories and dreams. Something was always waiting around the corner, though it never revealed itself to him, preferring to lie in wait. He ascended the staircase and washed up before going back downstairs. To the room that he hid from plain sight. To the ornate toybox waiting in the storage closet.

It had taken so long for the toybox key to find its way back into his hands. After all that had happened, it was a pointless exercise to use it now.

The toybox unlocked to reveal a shattered violin and bloody sheet music, all sitting on top of dusty old toys and stuffed animals. He reached down to touch the pieces, but his hands grasped at nothing but air. He sifted it through his fingers, collecting darkness. The shards of wood, tangles of hair and string, and scraps of paper all gradually receded into memory.

Of course. Even locked away, the remnants of his crime were too much. Something would’ve leaked out. They had to be discarded. But when?

Sunny shook his head, unable to recall. He closed the toybox and pocketed the key before beginning the final ascent up to his room.

Though he had never noticed it before, the stale air in his room felt slightly sickening. There was nothing more to do here. Overcome with exhaustion, he allowed the smothering embrace of his bed to engulf him in the darkness.

* * *

Sunny awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. In the end, Mom had arrived. He got in the car as the last of the boxes were loaded into the moving truck.

His mother adjusted the rearview mirror. “It’s so good to see you again, Sunny. Hopefully you didn’t miss me too much. Did you hang out with your friend Kel?”

“Yeah.” Sunny wondered if she had seen Basil’s suicide on the news.

“Oh, great! What did you guys do together?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay. At least you got to say goodbye, right?”

He didn’t answer.

“Try not to feel so bad. I’m sure you’ll make tons of new friends in the city.” She moved on to idle chit-chat and started up the car’s ignition.

Out the corner of his eye, Sunny spotted a shadow rushing along the sidewalk.

It belonged to Kel, who was wearing his orange jersey again. He was waving a last-minute goodbye. Sunny put his hand up to the car window. The faintest hint of a smile crossed his face, and then vanished.


End file.
